DB9 Upgraded Brakes. The Aston Martin DB9 brakes are, I believe, marginal. Exactly the same brakes are used on the V8 Vantage with much less power and weight. My DB9 brakes did not feel at all reassuring, braking from high speeds.
The standard setup consists of 355 * 32mm one piece front discs with Brembo 4 piston callipers and the rear has one piece 330 * 28mm discs with smaller 4 Piston Brembo callipers, the rears have a small separate handbrake calliper.
The V8 Vantage S has a 2 piece 380mm Front disc with a 6 pot calliper but with different spacing and a different knuckle, specific to the V8S, to upgrade these brakes would need a different system, with just a spacer bar.
DB9 Upgraded Front Brakes
To upgrade the front brakes, I used 410 * 35mm discs with an alloy bell and the callipers from an Aston Martin DBS, these are 6 piston monobloc callipers and are attached by using the same bracket as the DBS/Virage/Vantage V12 uses (the DBS/Virage have Carbon ceramic brakes of 398mm front and 360mm rear diameter.
Two piece discs have a number of advantages over single piece discs, reduced weight, better heat dissipation, less risk of warping and better airflow. The larger area and greater diameter also increase stopping power with less risk of fading.
These brackets are easily available or could be made quite simply, the same brake hose can be used. The bracket just bolts on where the the calliper bolted on and the calliper bolts onto the bracket.
The callipers and pads are substantially larger than the original DB9 callipers
DB9 Upgraded Rear Brakes
DB9 Upgraded rear Brakes (updated), when I upgraded my Front Brakes to 410mm Two piece discs and DBS 6 Pot callipers I also upgraded the rears to maintain the braking balance. The stock rear brakes are 330mm diameter single piece discs with a 4 pot Caliper and separate handbrake caliper.
The issue with upgrading the rear brakes is the caliper brackets to fit larger discs, The DBS has 360mm discs with a bracket for the main caliper and different handbrake calipers.
I opted to go for 380mm 2 part discs, this meant modifying the main caliper bracket and creating handbrake brackets.
Originally I welded 10 mm bobbins onto the main caliper and produced the handbrake caliper by grinding 2 10mm thick steel plates to fit and then welding them together but I always wanted to mill them out of aluminium alloy billet which I have now done using CNC.
Main Caliper Bracket
The main caliper is milled from 30mm billet Aluminium, it has a slightly wider web than the original steel bracket to maintain the rigidity of the Caliper.
Handbrake Caliper Bracket
Than handbrake calliper is milled from a 20mm billet of aluminium Alloy
Both Brackets are anodised to prevent corrosion. They are both better fitting and look better and more professional than the original brackets (which did perform perfectly though)
Improvements
The DB9 Upgraded Brakes have resulted in far more bite, better feel and a huge improvement in stopping power. My Aston has 20″ DBS wheels and I don’t think these brakes would fit behind the standard 19″ wheels on a DB9 . The total weight of the brakes has gone up by just a few hundred grammes due to the alloy bells and as the rotors can be changed without changing the bells it makes it cheaper to change the discs.
I also think that the brakes look far better than the standard items.
Useful Links
Hi, love the write-up! I’m just about ready to do the same conversion on my DB9, but I’m really struggling to find the correct front brake pads – are you using the pads for a carbon disc, or did you find an alternative solution?
Cheers.
I got my pads from AMS Edition, they are OK but not much bite so I’ll be looking to replace them with something else soon too.
Thanks, appreciate you getting back to me.
The car looks great by the way!
Thank you